iPhone location finding

[needthephone]

This old chestnut about iphone having GPS like capabilities-Its possible to track any mobile now and plot its position to 10's of metres eg see

http://www.world-tracker.com/
http://www.followus.co.uk/
http://www.traceamobile.co.uk/

Why hasn't apple used this to have load a map at your position or even basic route directions?

If my phone says which cell I am near why can't that be used to load up a map of my approx position???

Here's hoping that if and when we get the iphone in Australia it will have this or GPS and hopefully 3G

 

[The Stig]

Why hasn't apple used this to have load a map at your position or even basic route directions?

Because they don't want to partner with the company. They'd have to give out access. They would if they would make the a program like that or buy a company that makes it.

The Stig

 

[kdarling]

If my phone says which cell I am near why can't that be used to load up a map of my approx position???

Because it's not your phone doing the locating. The phone itself is ignorant of its own location. The cells figure out the location from the phone signal and can feed that to LBS's (Location Based Services) such as the ones you mentioned or 911 centers.

As The Stig just mentioned, Apple could come up with a LBS web service to help the iPhone know where it is, if they really wanted.

(That said, I believe there are third party apps for some phones that can do the reverse. They run on the cell phone and contain a database of known cell tower locations. The phone checks which cell ids it's near, and can look up the rough area it's in by comparing signal strengths. But this kind of third party program isn't built into any phones yet.)

 

[needthephone]

Ok that makes sense, it will probably be cheaper to use GPS than set up a system like this.

 

[jonathanck]

Mobile Phone Tracking update

Further to recent posts have come across a business mobile phone tracking site called http://www.mobilelocators.com. Unlike http://www.traceamobile.com they offer a service especially for business users.

 

[kdarling]

Thanks for the extra pointers.

So the question is, how many iPhone users would pay $10-20 per month in order to use location based services ? That is, if I wanted to start a website that looked up your phone's location and passed the info to Google maps?

I'm not sure even $5 would be low enough. I get the feeling most people would rather wait for a phone with an accessible GPS built-in.

But I could be way off base. Could be an opportunity for someone.

For example, carriers like Verizon already offer monthly paid apps like this in the form of their VZ Navigator, etc.

Thoughts?